Talented Toaster, Patient Parents & Napoleon

Tuesday, October 5 - (The Jewells have been on the go since my last blog so I am playing some catch-up with this one. I should be able to stay on track from now on.) On Tuesday morning, we again enjoyed our hotel's complimentary breakfast buffet. Now that we have been here for four days, we have definitely figured out that the buffet is pretty much the exact same fare every day. Will I have my daily dose of cholesterol with two scrambled eggs again or get my cholesterol via the sausage in the shape and size of McDonald's fries? This is my daily struggle - ha! Actually, the food is very good -it is just the same food. However, I was enthralled today by a talented toaster (see teaser in last blog) which decided to entertain me out of my food boredom with fantastic feats. After my bread toasted, the toaster ejected (or should I say propelled) my toast into the air and down it came and landed right back in the same toaster slot. Cute! My stunt toast wasn't toasty enough so I put it in again and this time, when it was done, the toast shot up in the air and did a perfect flip landing on its side on the top of the toaster! Alright, where are the cameras???

After relaxing in the hotel room for a while, we went downstairs to meet Alexey, Nastya's husband who is also a facilitator/translator for adopting couples. (See photo of Alexey and his infectious smile.) Using his taxi driver-like skills, Alexey weaved us in and out and through downtown traffic with nail-biting intensity and took us to the SDA (Ukrainian adoption authority) so we could receive our "referral" as adoptive parents. While we waited, we met several other American adoptive parents also getting their referrals. They were from Pennsylvania, Texas and even Rock Hill, South Carolina. It was a joy getting to speak English with everyone! The referral process was easy as they checked our passports, recorded some information, got our signatures and then handed us a one-inch thick set of documents to take to the authorities in Severodonetsk (Tatyana's hometown where we will go next).

Afterwards, Alexey needed to run a quick nearby errand so we waited for him outside the SDA. As you may recall from a previous blog, the SDA is in the middle of downtown Kiev. While we waited, we strolled down the street in front of the SDA. It was a steep and winding cobblestone road with beautiful old buildings along it. (See photo of Steve and Summer walking down this street.) There was also one of Kiev's ornate churches under renovation at the top that street and, once downhill on the uphill street, I snapped a photo from below. (See photo of church.) It is impossible to capture the full beauty of the historic and grand churches of Kiev in a photo so imagine its up close beauty and grandeur in person!

Alexey returned and took us to a restaurant where Steve and I had arranged a very special meeting. While still in America, I had learned of a couple who were already in Ukraine and who were in the process of adopting from the same orphanage in Severodonetsk at which Tatyana resides. They are Gina and Marty Adams. I began to read their adoption blog and loved it. I then emailed Gina because I had SOOO many questions about their experiences that we would soon be having ourselves. She was wonderful and SO responsive. She helped me more than she will ever know. (Thanks, Gina, and I hope you are enjoying my blog now that you are back in the States!) Long story short, Gina was my guiding light on the adoption process in Severodonetsk AND she was my direct connection to Tatyana since she visited the orphanage daily to see her soon-to-be son, Kolya (now named "Nick"). Through Gina, I found out that Nick and Tatyana are good friends. Then Gina the Great arranged a Skype call with me at the orphanage and had Nick bring Tatyana. I got to "meet" Gina, her husband Marty, Nick and then I got to see Tatyana's beautiful face and then tell her that we were coming to her orphanage in a few weeks! Her reaction - priceless! Then, once Gina returned to Kiev (as we all must do to get visas, physical exams, etc. for the kids), we met for dinner! How amazing it was to meet her in person after weeks of emails between the U.S. and Ukraine and Skype calls! And meeting Nick, one of Tatyana's friends, it just gave me chills!! The bad news is that I was SO excited about meeting and talking with them that I completely forgot to take pictures!!!! Boo-hoo! Oh, and the "Napoleon" in my blog title above was the scrumptious dessert we had that night. Layer after layer of a cream cheesy filling followed by a layer of Phyllo dough (or some kind of pastry) followed by more cream cheesiness followed by more gooey pastry. You get the delicious picture - although I missed taking a picture of that too!!

It was a big day for us as we are now officially approved to go to the next level of adopting Tatyana in her hometown. Severodonetsk, here we come!! You will also learn in my next blog how Ukrainian security police viewed me as a possible threat to national security...so read the next entry for the rest of the story!!!

Sunny